New Zealand to decide on lowering voting age from 18 to 16

By NICK PERRY
Associated Press

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand lawmakers will take a vote on whether to lower the nation’s voting age from 18 to 16. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern made the announcement Monday, hours after the country’s Supreme Court ruled that not allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to vote amounted to age discrimination. But while Ardern said she personally favors lowering the age, such a change would require a 75% supermajority of lawmakers to agree. And even proponents acknowledge they don’t currently have the numbers. In New Zealand, the protection against age discrimination begins at 16, and the judges ruled that the attorney-general had failed to show why 18 had been chosen as the age to vote rather than 16.